Behind the Jumps
by Davesknd
Summary: Event on the calm days of life, the mushroom kingdom can be an interesting place. This story is prove of that. See the the moments in the life of two plumbers that are not in the games.


Luigi was a good plumber. He knew his pipes, tools and bathtubs by heart. But right in this moment, he wished that he had any idea of repairing an overpowered ghost catching device that was based on a vacuum cleaner.  
"Daisy, I´m not too sure how to release you without putting you into a painting at the wall. This thing didn´t exactly come with a manual…" admitted the plumber uneasily.

"Well, that sounds wonderful; I always wanted to know what the paintings in my castle were thinking… NOT!" came a muffled voice from the vacuum "Why exactly did you keep this thing anyways?"

"It DOES work well as a vacuum cleaner." Admitted the nervous plumber and added mentally; Plus, it´s a nice reinsurance in case a ghost pops up. He went through the tools he had put on the floor around him. Maybe if he hit it with the spammer…

"EWWW! GET ME OUT OF HERE!" shouted the Poltergust 2000 angrily.

"I´m trying! I´m trying!" said Luigi in desperation and decided to go with the more careful approach.

"Luigi, something is poking me in the back!"

"Good, that means that this tube is connected to the filter…" said the plumber with a bit of relief.

"What is poking me in the back?"

"A tool…" answered Luigi as innocent as possible

"A tool used by… YOU ARE POKING ME WITH A TOILET SNAKE, AREN´T YOU?" screamed the Poltergust again and came close to jumping angrily.

"I hardly have a wide variety here. I´m sorry!" apologized Luigi with a shaky voice and turned to his tools again. "So, I guess you won´t hold onto it, so I can…"

"NO, I WON´T!"

"Ok, then I have to improvise…" muttered the plumber and turned to the more simple tools.

*50 minutes later*

Daisy was slowly losing hope. Luigi had made it clear that he had found a way, but for some reason, she doubted it would work… or at least work with her getting out in one three dimensional piece. Why did these ghost mushrooms have a time limit? Suddenly she felt a pulling behind her back and all of a sudden the familiar sound and feeling of a warp pipe came over her. Bright light suddenly surrounded her and she almost slipped as she landed on the carpet in the living room of the Mario brother´s house.

"Ok, how did you do this?" asked the princess of Sarasaland with as much dignity, as a princess in an orange dress, covered in dirt and scale could possibly have, while stepping away from the arrangement of pipes and the poltergust 3000 behind her.

"I made a makeshift warp pipe with some old shower pipes we have in our house. Sorry for taking so long… I had to find the shower pipes. The only others were from a job at the local sewers." Said Luigi as he collected the tools he had used.

"Oh, you are such a gentleman." Said Daisy with a wink "So, I guess I got it easy with the scale dust." She tried to wipe some of the powder off her dress and hair, but soon found out that it wouldn´t come off well. "Do you mind if I take a shower and throw my clothes in the washing machine?"

"No, the shower is upstairs and the…" answered Luigi absentminded until the information slowly worked itself into his skull "But… you don´t have any… any…"

"Just tell me where your room is and I´ll borrow some of yours." Answered the princess, slightly amused by Luigi´s reaction "Unless you feel easier, if I run around naked." She added with a wink.

"…… Upstairs the third door to the left, the bathroom is right next to it." Came out of the plumber's mouth without passing the brain. He was lost somewhere in the sea of awkwardness.

Daisy couldn't suppress a chuckle and a grin. He was such a funny man when he was embarrassed. "I'll go freshen up, why don´t you make some coffee in the meanwhile?"

"Coffee. Making. Me." left Luigi´s mouth as he turned around and gave his best zombie impression as he moved towards the kitchen.

The princess chuckled again and went upstairs. She started searching Luigi´s room for something to slip into. For a moment, she considered just getting his bathrobe and her underwear, but the poor guy was probably so embarrassed at the moment, he was probably filling milk in the toaster and putting mushroom mix in the coffee filter. She browsed the rest of his drawer and decided that a few modifications on his boiler suits and green shirts would be sufficient. She took the things to the bathroom and got out of her dress, ready to get the dirt off her.

Meanwhile, Luigi got back up from the electrification caused by the milk in the toaster. Now he just had to shrink the coffee filter back to normal size and get a few biscuits on a plate, without torching the entire house and maybe the afternoon wouldn´t turn into a complete mess. The plumber sighed and shook his head. Why was he so nervous? He didn´t exactly do anything wrong. It was Daisy, or better ghost-Daisy, who suddenly appeared in front of him, while he was cleaning the living room. Any person with a fear of ghosts and a working piece of mad science that could catch any kind of ghosts and worked quite well as a vacuum would have caught her with it. He sighed again and searched the drawers for a few things to distract himself from any thought of Daisy in the shower. Who could have told her of ghost mushrooms anyways?

*20 minutes later*

The coffee was done, even though it was a bit mild, with the filters grit being twice as big as it usually is. Shrinking inanimate objects was harder than shrinking yourself. Luigi was finally calm again and the washing machine was ready for Daisy´s dress.

"Hey there handsome, I took a look on your shower. It doesn´t need any plumbing…" came a very mischievously seductive voice from the top of the stairs. The plumber whispered a prayer and turned towards the stairs.  
Daisy was standing there in one of his boiler suits, the bibs strapped around her like a belt and tied together at the front, so it wouldn´t drop. One of Luigi´s green T-shirts, usually too big for her, was forced into fitting her, by being turned into a big knot at the front. It still covered her down to the navel, but left little to the imagination otherwise. Luigi was somewhere between impressed and embarrassed. He had seen much of Daisy during their sport activities, but all alone with her… it was different.

"Looks nice on you." Was all he managed to say without stuttering.

"Glad to hear that." Answered the princess with a smile and came down the stairs. "Here is my dress."

Luigi took the dress and looked it over, feeling the fabric. "30 to 40 degree… hand wash, I´d say." He muttered.

"You can tell that by looking at the fabric?" asked Daisy, surprised and amused.

"I do most of the laundry around here. Trust me; if you are a plumber, you come across all kinds of stains. And I like my shirts clean." He said with a smile himself.

"Oh, I saw that… Your room is pretty neat." Answered Daisy, "Compared to mine, at least."

"I'll just throw this in the machine." Luigi said with a smile, "I´ll be back in a minute. The coffee is ready too."

"Just don´t sniff on it." Daisy said with a wink, earning herself another blush from the Italian in front of her. Teasing him was so much fun.

As Luigi returned from his task, he found Daisy sitting on the couch, sipping her coffee. He took a seat in the winged chair across the table and helped himself to some coffee.

A mischievous glint appeared in Daisy´s eye. "So, how many lonely housewives have already told you that they don´t have enough to pay you, while you were in this uniform?" she asked with a grin.

Luigi hardly managed to not shoot coffee across the room as answer and just managed to get out a pressed "What?"

Daisy chuckled at the sight, but soon burst into laughter. "I´m sorry." She said between laughs, "You are just so much fun to tease."

"Thank you, I guess…." Answered the plumber with narrowed eyes "Good to know that you have fun."

"Oh, don´t be a crybaby." Answered Daisy, tilting her head "I was trapped in a vacuum cleaner for almost an hour and you don´t hear me complaining."

"That was hardly my fault." Answered Luigi somewhat apoplectic "I don´t feel too easy with ghosts. Even when I am one."

"I think those mushrooms are fun." Said the princess with a bright smile "If they just worked longer…"

"Who told you about those anyways?"

"Peach, of course. She mentioned them when she told me of how Bowser captured her in outer space. You did your part in helping Mario with this thing as well, or so, I heard." Said Daisy with a smile.

Luigi nodded but looked sideways. "It wasn´t exactly my most heroic quest… Mario had to save me more than once."

"But at least you got some stars for him." Added Daisy.

"I did more in our trip to the past… or inside Bowser´s body." Said Luigi, somewhat hurt. Why didn´t anyone these adventures?

"Inside Bowser´s body?" asked Daisy in disbelief, "How did that look like."

"Let´s keep it at this: It´s good that I´m used to bad smell from my plumbing job." Answered the plumber.

"More pre-plumbing, if you were inside of Bowser, but enough of this." Snickered Daisy for a second, "Oh, look what time it is… I´m missing "Ghostian Gladiators". Do you mind if I watch it here?"

"What Gladiators?" asked Luigi in surprise.

"It´s a program thought up by King Boo." Explained Daisy, "Two teams of contestants try to duke it out over the prize money and some of the Boos try to stop them."

"Sounds… full of ghosts." Answered the plumber with a bit of worry.

"Oh, don´t be such a wuss, its great action and fun!" cheered Daisy and switched on the TV.

*45 minutes of show and 45 minutes of commercials later*

"Dang that was close… MaliBoo almost got him. But suddenly TurBoo shows up and the poor Toad drops in the net." Said Daisy as she switched off the TV, "I really want to partake one day. Not that I need the money, but just for having fun." She turned over to her host. Luigi was shivering slightly. The princess sighed, "But I guess I can forget asking you to be my partner. Even though… you probably run faster than anyone if a ghost is behind you."

"You have no idea…" whispered Luigi, trying to catch himself again. Why did those Boos have to laugh and stick out their tongues and be so frikking creepy all the time?

"Well, my dress should be clean now." Said Daisy, trying to break through his terror induced freeze.

"I´ll go see it." Luigi answered and made his way out of the room. A few moments later, his head popped up. "Daisy, you might want to hit the biscuits a little harder… if you want to fit into the dress." came his meek voice "I have kinda… put Mushroom mix in the washing machine… But you get a free tent…."


End file.
